Chapter 14

Tim became aware of the world again when a beam of light hit him right in the eye. He squinted and the light disappeared. So he didn't expend any more effort than that to figure out what was going on. Instead, he rolled over and embraced oblivion once more.

After an unknown amount of time, the world intruded again. This time, in the form of a voice.

"Rise and shine, Tim!"

Since the answer to that order was no, Tim didn't bother responding. He just lay where he was, enjoying the completely relaxed feeling he had.

"Come on, Tim. Flagstaff is great and all, but we don't want to spend forever here."

How long had it been since he'd been able to sleep like this? Tim couldn't even remember the last time. It had definitely been many months. He certainly hadn't been able to sleep like this since Delilah's pregnancy.

Delilah! He hadn't called her last night!

That jarred Tim out of his relaxed state and he sat up quickly.

"Whoa, Tim. We're not in that much of a hurry," Tony said.

"I forgot to call Delilah!" Tim said, feeling terrible about it.

"Well, it's only ten o'clock over there. You can call her now," Tony said, reasonably.

"I promised I would call," Tim said. "I don't want her to worry."

"Like you are right now?"

Tim didn't really pay attention to what Tony was saying. He grabbed his phone and called home as quickly as he could.

"Tim, you didn't call last night," Delilah said as soon as she answered. "You're lucky my mom isn't vindictive."

"I know," Tim said. "I'm sorry. We got back from the Grand Canyon and I was so tired that I fell asleep before I even realized it."

To Tim's relief, Delilah just laughed a little. "I'm not worried. Or at least, I'm not that worried. So did you have fun?"

"Mostly. Tony threatened to throw me into the canyon," Tim said, finally looking at Tony and smiling.

"Hey!"

"I'm glad he didn't do that. You can tell him that the wrath of a pregnant woman is a terrifying thing to behold."

"Delilah says you're lucky nothing happened to me," Tim said, his smile stretching to a grin.

"No telling lies about me when I can't talk back," Tony said.

"That's the best time to do it," Tim said, feeling calmer now that he knew Delilah wasn't worrying about him.

"What are you going to do today?"

"Just keep on going. We'll probably get to California this evening and then, we'll spend Friday and Saturday morning hanging around there before catching our flight back to D.C."

"Try to remember to call me tonight, then. Actually, hang on a minute."

"Okay."

A few seconds later, Tim could hear the excited squeal that told him Tommy was there. He felt himself start to smile widely.

"Daddy! Two more days! Mommy says!"

"That's right. Are you marking the calendar?"

"Lots of x's. Miss you."

"I miss you, too."

"Made a song for you!"

Tim laughed. Delilah had probably loved that.

"Can you play it for me now?"

"Yes!"

Tim heard Tommy run off to get his drum, probably. After a few seconds, he heard Tommy running back and then a cacophony of drums and tambourine and maracas was in his ears. He pulled the phone away a little to lessen the noise.

"Daddy, you like it?"

"I loved it, Tommy. It's great. Let me talk to your mom, okay?"

"Mommy! Daddy for you!"

"You see what you have to look forward to?" Delilah asked sounding both amused and a little exasperated.

"Yes. I wouldn't have it any other way," Tim said, smiling.

"I know. Tim, be careful, okay?"

"Of course. I wouldn't do anything reckless."

"I know you wouldn't. But I hope that you are letting yourself have fun."

"Of course I am."

"There's no of course about it, Tim. You've been stressed for a long time, and I don't know if you really remember how not to be."

Tim felt his smile becoming fixed and he turned away from Tony a little bit.

"I'm a parent. I have a stressful job. Stress is normal."

There was a pause.

"I'm sorry, Tim. I can tell you're getting tense. I didn't mean to bring that up while you're on vacation."

Tim took a breath and let it out as quietly as possible so Tony didn't start worrying again. He didn't want people worrying about him.

"Don't worry, Tim. Just have fun on the rest of your vacation. I'll be glad to have you back home. Mom is starting to be...too motherly."

Tim relaxed a little.

"Is Virginia standing there as you say that?"

"Of course. And she doesn't care one bit."

Then, he heard a distant voice.

"No, I don't!"

He laughed.

"Well, we need to get going soon and I just woke up," Tim said. "So I'd better hang up."

"Sleeping in, huh? Well, you deserve it."

"Got to get it in now before the twins come. Neither of us will be sleeping then."

"Something to look forward to. Have fun, today."

"I will. Even if it's just mostly driving."

"And tell Tony to have fun, too."

"Will do. Bye."

"Love you."

They both hung up and Tim turned around.

"Delilah says that you have to have fun," Tim said.

"I think I can handle that."

"Good. I'll get ready and we can get on the road."

"Okay."

Tim was glad to get into the bathroom without Tony mentioning the obviously tense moment in his conversation. It was a reminder that he didn't need. ...because he thought about it all the time already. As he prepared for the day, he looked at himself in the mirror. He still felt that edge of tiredness, but it wasn't as strong as it had been. In reality, he should have gone to Vance to ask for an easing of his schedule as Delilah's due date got closer, but he hadn't done that, for fear of reminding him about what had happened the year before. Besides, he already had made arrangements for someone to take over the team for a month or two when Delilah had the twins. Vance had been extremely accommodating and Tim didn't want to push it.

"No. Don't start worrying about that now," Tim told his reflection. "It'll all still be there when you get back. There's plenty of life waiting back in D.C., and I don't need to bring it in here. Just have fun and no one will need to worry."

He shook his head and tried to relax. Then, he walked out.

"You want to grab something for breakfast and eat in the car again?" he asked.

"Nah," Tony said. "We're not in a rush. We'll easily have a full day to bum around in California. Let's eat a little more leisurely."

"Are you sure?" Tim asked.

"Yeah."

Something seemed suspicious to Tim. He couldn't figure out why, but Tony seemed to be almost too casual for the situation.

"What's going on, Tony?" Tim asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...you're acting different. What is it? You're making me tense."

"Different? How?" Tony asked, acting innocent.

"You know exactly what I mean," Tim said, as they walked into the continental breakfast area.

"Nope. Not a clue, but I'm going to check out that waffle iron. Don't take too long picking out your breakfast. We don't want to spend too much time here."

Then, Tony walked away, leaving Tim looking at him suspiciously. He was more sure than ever that he was right. Tony had something in mind and, for whatever reason, he wasn't telling Tim about it.

Why?

Tim stood there for a few seconds and then his stomach growled and he decided to worry about it later.

He grabbed a tray and proceeded to pick out some food for breakfast. He got a pastry, a banana, some sugary, completely unhealthy cereal and some eggs to pretend he was trying to be balanced. Then, he got coffee and milk and joined Tony at a table. Tony had got waffles, eggs and bacon. Tim kept eyeing Tony all through breakfast and Tony pretended not to notice.

After they finished eating, they checked out, loaded their stuff in the car and Tony started them out of Flagstaff.

Tim pulled out the atlas and started checking what their route should be. For probably about ten or fifteen minutes, he was carefully following what would be the best way to get to the end of the route. He was glad to see the old highway appearing again. And the hardest part would be navigating through Los Angeles to get to the Santa Monica pier. They'd have to see what hotels were available close to the end of the road. Tim was sure they'd be expensive, but it would probably be worth it for a day or two. ...much better than last time.

"It looks like we can get on Route 66 again as we're headed to California and it shouldn't be a really long day. Maybe eight or nine hours, even if we use the old highway," he said.

"Sounds great, Probie," Tony said. "But it might be a little more than that."

"Why?"

Tim looked up for a moment to look at Tony, but then, he looked out the windshield and then out his window. The sun was definitely not on the correct side of the car.

"Tony...what are you doing?"

Tony grinned mischievously.

"It's a surprise."

"I don't want a surprise. What are you doing?"

"It's nothing bad."

"Uh-huh," Tim said skeptically.

"You'll love it."

"You've said that before."

Tony got a little serious for a moment. "I know what you're thinking of, but I didn't promise that would be good, only necessary. And I apologized for that. My timing was off. This isn't like that. And my timing is great."

Tim found it interesting that Tony was still mostly avoiding even saying Gibbs' name around him. He was fine with it, but it was interesting.

"Then, what is it?"

"You'll have to wait and see, Tim."

Tim wasn't much reassured. However, it was ridiculous to think that Tony would be somehow managing to arrange another impromptu meeting with Gibbs in the middle of Arizona.

After another few minutes, Tim really started to wonder why Tony was backtracking.

"Tony, where are we going?"

"About ten more minutes and you'll see."

"But we're going the wrong way, and..."

"...and you said that we'd have plenty of time to get to California."

"Yeah, but we're going to have to make up all this time and that's at least a half hour we've been driving."

"We have time."

Then, a sign caught Tim's eye. Could it be?

"Tony... are we going to the Meteor Crater?"

Tony's grin answered him.

"Why?"

"Because you want to."

"No. I... I did when I was a kid, but..."

"But you still want to. There's nothing wrong with that."

"We don't need to backtrack for this. I told you. It probably won't be as amazing as I built it up to be."

"Yes, it will."

"Tony, you don't have to..."

"Tim, we did my thing yesterday. And we did it for the whole day. I'm glad. It was great to finally see the Grand Canyon. This is just adding an hour or two onto our day. That's it. You want to see it. I know you do. I can tell."

Suddenly, Tony looked directly at him just for a second.

"You deserve to have things you want, Tim."

Then, he went back to paying attention to the road.

"You can't make up for the stuff you regret by pretending you don't deserve anything good."

Tim was silent. He didn't know what to say and there was an embarrassing lump in his throat besides. He did want to see Meteor Crater. It was a dream. He'd been really disappointed to realize that it was so close and that the timing had been just off for getting in, but he didn't want to bring it up, so he hadn't. How had Tony been able to tell?

"Thanks, Tony," he said, softly.

Tony kept his eyes on the road, but he spared a hand to thump Tim on the shoulder.

"No problem. I looked it up while you were sleeping. It's a little pricy, but all the reviews say that it's worth it."

Tim wanted to insist that this wasn't necessary, but he couldn't bring himself to lie that he didn't want to see it. Tony knew it would be a lie anyway. So he said nothing as the exit came up. As Tony turned the car down a nicely paved road, Tim felt himself getting excited. He was trying to keep himself from getting too excited. After all, it was just a big hole in the ground. He was sure that it wouldn't be as mind-blowingly amazing as he had thought it would be as a child.

He told himself that, but as they got closer, he found himself leaning forward, just a little. He couldn't help it. He really couldn't. He really wanted to see this thing and now that it was going to be a reality, it was hard to pretend that it wasn't exciting.

Finally, they went around a corner and there was the entrance gate for the Meteor Crater.

"Here we are, Tim. You ready?"

"Yeah," Tim said, trying to be an adult, but feeling like he was twelve years old.

"Good." Tony parked and they got out.

Tim looked around, but he couldn't see the crater from where they were standing. So they headed into the visitor center to pay.

"Well, Tim, where to, first?"

Tim looked at Tony and then, for the first time in a long time, he didn't care about anything else other than going out and seeing the crater. That was all he wanted. The eighteen bucks they'd both just paid for entrance was worth it if he got to see the crater. In fact, they could walk out, look and leave, and it would be worth paying for.

"The crater," he said.

Tony grinned. "Then, let's go."

They made their way out of the building and Tim got his first look at something he'd been wanting to see for nearly 30 years.

It was a gigantic hole in the ground and Tim was so excited to see it that his heart was almost beating out of his chest. He smiled and walked down to one of the overlooks. It stuck out over the crater a little bit, but for once, Tim didn't care about the height, either. He was looking all around. It was nearly a mile in diameter, nearly 600 feet deep and the walls of the crater sloped down toward the center, with tracks where water had clearly drained down during what were likely rare rainstorms.

He almost couldn't speak. He barely remembered that he had a camera. It was the most amazing thing he'd seen since... since he didn't know when. This was something that was just good to see. No complications. No negatives. It was just amazing.

"Wow, that's a big hole," Tony said from beside him after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah," Tim said. "A really big hole in the ground. Isn't it amazing?"

Tony laughed.

"So is it as good as you thought it would be?"

"It's better. Pictures just aren't enough."

"Well, whether they are or not, we're going to take some. So pose and I'll get your ecstatic self documented."

Tim reluctantly turned away from the view and let Tony take his picture. Then, he took Tony's picture, too. Then, he found a place to set up his camera so that they could both be in the picture at the same time. Then, they each picked a pair of mounted binoculars and spent a few minutes examining the base of the crater and the walls. Tony even tried taking a picture through the binoculars and it kind of worked.

After that, they walked around the rim a little bit. There was a tour, but Tim didn't care about the tour. He'd read a lot about the crater years ago and all he'd ever wanted was to see it. He also knew that, extra time or not, they couldn't spend hours here.

There was a movie, and Tim was half-interested in seeing it, but he knew they didn't have the time, so he didn't mention it. Instead, after walking around outside for a while, they went into the gift shop. Of course.

Tim decided to buy a bag of rocks for Tommy. It was silly because these same rocks were available at every cheap gift shop in every place that was even semi-rock related. But he remembered wanting them as a kid and Tommy would appreciate them now...well, maybe for five minutes or so. But they were cheap, so he didn't care.

"What are you getting, Tony?"

Tony grinned. "Well, I'm going to get something for Jo, and I'm getting these bibs for your girls."

Tim laughed. Tony was holding up two bibs. One read, "It's a meteorite thing. You wouldn't understand." The other had "Live, Love Meteorites" printed on it.

"You're spoiling them before they're even born, Tony," Tim said.

"That's my job. And then, I've got to get something for you."

"Tony, I'm right here. I can buy something. And I'm going to."

"So? That doesn't mean I can't buy you something, too." Tony started looking around and Tim gave up trying to talk him out of it. He figured that meant he should get something for Tony, too. And he saw it without even taking a step.

There was a display of t-shirts right beside him and the one in front read simply Thud with a picture of a meteorite headed for the crater. Perfect.

Tim grabbed it and then walked over to some of the pottery. He wanted to get something for Virginia as a way of thanking her for staying with Delilah this week. He found a beautiful pot that was carved out of wood and it was expensive but not too expensive. And being wood, it would be less likely to get broken on the trip home. He hoped.

Both feeling a lot poorer, they left the gift shop with bags of tourist trap souvenirs.

"That was fun," Tim said. "Thanks, Tony."

"Hey, I liked it, too. Now, here's your shirt."

Tim took the bag Tony held out and pulled out a t-shirt. It had Giant crater! Don't fall in! written on the front.

"Nice," Tim said. "This is for you."

Tony grinned and took his shirt. He chuckled at the Thud and then, quickly changed to that shirt instead of the one he'd put on that morning. Tim hesitated and then decided to do the same.

And it was time to hit the road again.

This time, in the right direction.

"Worth stopping?" Tony asked as he started them off again.

"Yes," Tim said.

That was all he needed to say for the moment.